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Parents Outraged Over UWS School Aide Sex Abuse Charges
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 12, 2012
Modified Feb 12, 2012
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DNAinfo/Paul Lomax
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 12, 2012
Modified Feb 12, 2012
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The teacher's aide at well-regarded Upper West Side school PS 87 who has been accused of sexually abusing an 8-year-old student was formally charged in court yesterday. Gregory Atkins, 56, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of sexual abuse, attempted criminal sex act and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors say Atkins made the child strip in a school bathroom four separate times and once in an empty auditorium—he also allegedly asked the boy to perform oral sex. “He took the victim out of class on several occasions and he brought him to the boys bathroom and had him undress,” Assistant District Attorney Lauren Gretina said. And parents at the school are furiously trying to understand how this could have happened.
According to the Times, parents were exchanging the emails Saturday, a day after PS 87 principal Monica Berry sent out a letter notifying parents of the incidents and charges. “Who knew what, when?” said Kevin L. Krim, whose daughter attends kindergarten at the school. “They have to be held accountable for this.” The co-presidents of the school’s parent association, Rachel Laiserin and Rebecca Levey, said that an Education Department “crisis team” would also be at the school on Monday. “We know that parents have a lot of questions, and we hope to get answers,” the message said.
Parents particularly want to know why Atkins, who was accused of inappropriate behavior with a male student at Middle School 322 in 2006, was still working near children. According to a Special Commissioner of Investigation letter about that incident, the student’s mother told investigators that Atkins gave the boy gifts including a jockstrap and wrist straps. He also offered to baby-sit for the boy whenever necessary, and he "lurked" around the boy's sports games.
Peggy Saunders, who has been Atkins' neighbor for 19 years, told DNAInfo that teenage boys regularly hung around his sixth-floor Harlem apartment. “I thought they were like his nephews, because there's always some little boy there—like 16, 17, 18 [years old]—there was always somebody there,” Saunders said. “I have two children, a daughter and a son, and they were always spooked by him. When they grew up and went away, he'd never ask about my daughter—he'd always ask only about my son.”
Tagged
child abuse
gregory atkins
sex abuse
Upper West Side
uws
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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